Our members

Zico Albaiquni delves into painting with a distinct perspective, drawing on art history to explore the essence of artistic expression and its purpose. His meticulously crafted compositions blend Indonesian history with contemporary cultural symbols, bathed in a vibrant palette. Central to his work are landscapes infused with elements from the Mooi Indië tradition, a European Romantic style prevalent in colonial-era Indonesian art. Albaiquni also finds inspiration in S Sudjojono's social realism, drawing parallels between the Indonesian modernist's critique of colonial portrayals and today's tourist art and advertising.

While rooted in tradition, Albaiquni represents a new wave of Indonesian artists. He transcends postcolonial perspectives, reflecting on the traditional role of a pelukis (painter) in Indonesia, evoking a sense of community, ritual, and spirituality. Through this amalgamation of influences, Albaiquni examines how the Indonesian landscape and its people have been portrayed historically, finding his place, and that of Indonesian art, in today's globalized art scene.

Mark Bo Chen is a graduate researcher pursuing his PhD in media and communication at the University of Melbourne. His research engages with digital health, wearable devices, self quantification and communication privacy management.

Mark holds a Master degree in Global Media Communication from UniMelb, and was recognised in the 2021 Faculty of Arts Dean’s Honour List for his academic achievements. His Master’s thesis explored the discursive construction of COVID-19 and the Chinese nationhood on People's Daily WeChat Subscription Account, which led to critical insights into the role of digital platforms in the regulation of everyday life in China (read more here).

Mark also has a proven track record of professional experiences in the advertising and communication industry in Australia. His most recent role was Business Manager at Leo Burnett Publicis Groupe, where he provided services to brands in different categories including automotive, tourism, government and FMCG.

Martyn Coutts is an award-winning artist, researcher and educator. Martyn holds a postgraduate diploma in Animateuring (Theatre Making) from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). His creative projects have been shown extensively throughout Australia and internationally in Taiwan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Netherlands, UK, US and Canada. Martyn won the Dean's Award for Excellence for his Masters in Creative Industries from RMIT in 2021.

Martyn’s research engages with digital dramaturgies, cultural policy, digital protest art and social movement studies. He won the Dean’s Award for Excellence for his Masters in Arts Management from RMIT in 2021. His Master's research explored cultural policy in Hong Kong and how it intersects with national identity and soft power. Martyn is Tutor in Production at the VCA (University of Melbourne) in Digital Media and Projection. He teaches into the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Production).

In 2023, Martyn will have three papers published in edited volumes: Hong Kong Imaginary: Culture and Identity in the city-state, Framing Technologies in the Dramaturgies of Performance and The Unconformity: Culture-led regeneration in a regional setting.

Tyler Gleason is a PhD candidate in cultural studies at the University of Melbourne. His thesis explores the cultural production of HIV/AIDS in China from the early-1980s to the early-1990s. Tyler’s research interests focus on histories of HIV/AIDS and its effects in China and transnational contexts, using cultural studies, science and technology studies, and gender and sexuality approaches. Tyler holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Melbourne.

Chloe Ho is a doctoral candidate in Art History at the University of Melbourne and Digital Archive Researcher with Art and Australia. Her PhD project looks performance and installation art and other artistic, social and political events in, from, or about Singapore from the late 1980s to the present in relation to the writing of global art history.

Her broader research interests include performance art forms in the Asian context and artistic migration, particularly in relation to performance art and artists. She has been Graduate Fellow at the Centre of Visual Arts (CoVA), University of Melbourne (2018-present); Conference Administrator, AAANZ22; Advisory Committee for Currents (2020-2022); Committee member for the Asian Studies Association of Australia Conference 2020; Committee member of the UniMelb Art History Research Seminars (2020); Co-organiser of WIP Friday seminar series (2020), School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne. She has published in places such Southeast of Now and Live Art Development Agency.

Chung-Yun Hsu is a PhD student at the Centre for Advancing Journalism (CAJ) under the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Before commencing her PhD, Chung-Yun also completed her master’s degree at CAJ by majoring in International Journalism Studies. Although now based in Australia, she obtained her bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Communication Studies at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan. Her research interests include the changes in journalism, the framing of news, and the media image of Asian countries.

Caitlin Hughes is PhD Candidate in Art History and Curatorship at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD research focuses on ideas of horizontality, interactivity and exchange in Indonesian spatial art practice 1998-now, framed by cross-cultural contexts intra-nationally (beyond the Java-Bali conversation) and internationally (in the ‘global contemporary’). Caitlin’s other interests include contemporary South/east Asian art, Australian art, public art, as well as themes of play, futures, the environment and urban aesthetics in art from across the Asia-Pacific region. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Art Theory, Asian Art History) and a Bachelor of Art History and Curatorship (Honours, First Class) from the Australian National University.

Avishek Jha is a doctoral candidate at the School of Geography, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences in the University of Melbourne, Australia. His doctoral research looks at the diverse ways in which educated, unemployed young people navigate the prolonged precarity and limbo in their lives amid growing neoliberal development and socio-political changes in contemporary India. In doing so, Avishek's research examines the social, educational, and cultural actions of young men and women from diverse backgrounds, especially with a focus on newly emerging private supplementary educational spaces called libraries in the shadow education market of Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, India. He is interested in studying the varied social, political, and economic forms of illiberalism pervading contemporary India. He has published in the South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal and the Studies in Indian Politics. Prior to his PhD, Avishek completed his Masters in Liberal Studies from Ashoka University, Sonipat, India and a Masters in International Relations from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India.

Chitrangi Kakoti is a PhD researcher at the School of Culture and Communications, University of Melbourne. Her PhD project focuses on ongoing efforts by feminist organisations to build digital archives in order to document gender-based violence as a form of resistance against increasing violence, surveillance, and the hegemonic nationalist discourse by the Indian state. The project further seeks to understand the potential of feminist digital archives as sites of embodied resistance as well as the feminist labour, practices and technologies needed to sustainably maintain such digital archives. Her broader research interests lie in feminist theories, feminist social movements and memory studies. Chitrangi graduated with an MA in Critical Gender Studies from Central European University and an MSc in East Asian Relations from University of Edinburgh.

Dr. Wendi Li is a PhD graduate of the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD project explores how climate-concerned young individuals in Hong Kong and Melbourne perceive, communicate about, and construct their identities around climate change as a global crisis. Her research interests lie at the intersection of globalized public communication, climate change communication—especially youth climate activism—methodological cosmopolitanism, qualitative research, and more, within a comparative context across the Asia-Pacific region.

Wendi has served as a Committee member of the 2020 Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) Biennial Conference. She has also been elected as the Student and Early Career Representative for the Activism, Communication, and Social Justice (ACSJ) Interest Group within the International Communication Association (ICA) for the term 2023–2025.

Chenglin Liang is a PhD candidate in Screen & Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on Chinese youth culture, cyber-nationalism, masculinities of low-status or lower-middle-class Chinese men, and the broader cultural production of Chinese online communities. His PhD project seeks to outline the pessimism and disenfranchised masculinities of lower-middle-class Chinese men over the past decade, and to explore their cultural and political influences. Prior to studying at Melbourne, he completed his BA and MA at Jinan University and Shanghai University respectively, and briefly served as literary editor in China.

Xiaowei Liang is a PhD Candidate in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Before doing her PhD, Xiaowei received a BA (Hons) degree with a specialisation in Media and Communications Studies at the University of Melbourne and a BA degree at Monash University.

Her research interests include mediated cultures of beauty, femininities, and feminism(s) on Chinese digital platforms. Her PhD research project adopts digital ethnography, discourse analysis, and semi-structured interviews to explore how Chinese women navigate beauty norms and issues relating to cosmetic surgery on RED (XiaoHongShu), a popular e-commerce and lifestyle platform in China.

Qing Tingting Liu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Sociology Department at SUNY Albany. She is also affiliated with the University of Melbourne for a Study Abroad Research Program (Summer 2023). Her research interests include migration and mobility, globalization, diaspora, race and youth. Her recent publication is about Chinese international students’ racialization experience in USA.  She also wrote a book review about Chinese female migrants in Africa for International Migration Review.

Yahia Ma is a Ph.D. candidate at The University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute. His thesis focuses on the English translations of queer desires in Chinese-language literature. His articles and reviews have appeared in TranscUlturAl: A Journal of Cultural and Translation Studies, TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, Melbourne Asia Review, Babel, The Mandarin, Taiwan Insight, Perspectives, Translation Studies, and elsewhere. Yahia’s translations can be found in Queer Taiwanese Literature: A reader (2021) and Queer Time: A Notebook of Taiwanese Tongzhi Literature (2021). He is a recipient of the National Library of Australia’s Asia Studies Grant (2023) and a recipient of the Library Fellowship offered by The Australian Centre on China in the World (2023). He is currently co-editing a volume on queer literature in the Sinosphere.

Publications:
Ma, Yahia. ‘Queering the English Translation of Male Same-Sex Desire in 1990s Chinese-Language Literature’, TranscUlturAl: A Journal of Cultural and Translation Studies vol 14 no. 1 (2022), pp. 37-53.
Ma, Yahia. ‘How health authorities in Australia and China could describe Mpox in less stigmatising ways’, Melbourne Asia Review (Edition 13, 2023).

Ziying Meng is a PhD candidate at the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne. Her thesis explores video creators’ cross-platform practices on Chinese and US-based social media services. Her research interests include digital platforms, creator culture, Chinese social media, digital ethnography and smart technologies.

Patriot Mukmin is a PhD researcher at the Victorian College of Art, University of Melbourne. He also works as an artist and lecturer at the Faculty of Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology (FSRD ITB). His research focuses on the semiotic reading of visual signs, especially in works of art. In addition, he often borrows concepts in Semiotics to construct his art creations. The scope of his research includes social phenomena, history and its influence on the current practice of Indonesian art practices.

Ian Rafael Ramirez is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne where he is investigating the notion of the kanal (canal) in relation to the performances and worldmaking practices of the bakla (a local gender identity in the Philippines). He recently published his article on Manila queer nightlife in the Australasian Drama Studies Journal.

Genevieve Trail is a doctoral candidate at the University of Melbourne, living and working on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people. Her research examines the emergence of contemporary Hong Kong art in relation to global art histories, with a particular focus on mediums of installation, video and performance art. Her writing has been featured in publications including Art Monthly Australasia, Art+Australia, Di'van: A Journal of Accounts, The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, NGV Magazine and Currents Journal. In 2023 she curated the exhibition, Afterimage: New Media Art in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Arts West Gallery, University of Melbourne, which has since been archived through the Art+Australia Study Centre.

Rong Wan obtained her MA in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from Guangdong University of Foreign Studies (Guangzhou, China) in 2022 and is currently doing her PhD at Asia Institute in the University of Melbourne under the supervision of Prof. Claire Maree and A/Prof. Delia Lin. Her PhD program investigates beauty blogging phenomenon in contemporary China, delving into beauty bloggers’ multimodal beauty discourses on social media platforms, their life histories/ lived experiences, and online debates revolving around beauty/gender. Her research interest mainly lies in Gender and Women’s studies, Sociolinguistics, (Multimodal Media) Discourse Analysis, Chinese Studies, and Pragmatics.

Bin Wang is a PhD candidate at the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne. His doctoral project seeks to explore gay nightlife in urban China. His research focuses on the intersectional experiences of gay Asian men, marginalised populations and their rights to urban spaces, the everyday life of sexual minorities and other issues that fall under the broader category of gender and queer studies. He obtained BA at Monash University and Master of Geography at the University of Melbourne.

Bin Wang & Andrew Gorman-Murray (2023) International students, intersectionality and sense of belonging: a note on the experience of gay Chinese students in Australia, Australian Geographer, 54:2, 115-123, DOI: 10.1080/00049182.2023.2174652

Christie Widiarto is currently the Course Coordinator for the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Animation) and is undertaking the PhD program at the University of Melbourne.  Her topic involves a reinterpretation of the Indonesian Kuntilanak story, using animation as a ritual for grief.
Christie bio and project: Christie Widiarto – Animator and Filmmaker

Hendri Yulius Wijaya is a PhD student in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of "Intimate Assemblages: The Politics of Queer Identities and Sexualities in Indonesia" and co-editor of "Queer Southeast Asia". His book chapters and articles on the Indonesia queer politics have appeared in Laws, Indonesia and the Malay World, Feminist and Queer Theory: An Intersection and Transnational Reader (Oxford University Press, 2020), and Activists in Transition: Progressive Politics in Democratic Indonesia (Cornell University Press, 2019). His PhD research project examines the roles of consulting firms in shaping and promoting sustainability knowledge and intervention in Indonesia.

Shuai Xiao is a Visiting Scholar (Academic) within the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, and an Associate Professor of Henan University, China. His research interests include media and cultural studies, film and TV series, and narrative. Currently, he is involved in the study of the media representation of Chinese rural areas and peasants.

Fan Yang is a research fellow at the University of Melbourne node of ADM+S. Her work focuses on technologies and governance, digital ethics, innovative research methods, migration politics, and postcolonial technoscience. Her doctoral thesis, entitled ‘News Manufactories on WeChat’, provided one of the first insights into the internal operation of WeChat in Australia as a content production platform.

She co-leads a project that maintains one of the biggest datasets from WeChat. She has worked with international NGOs and think tanks as an external analyst. Her work has been translated into multiple languages including Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and French. Her research has been covered by Australian national and international media outlets.

Jingxian You is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Arts. Her research focuses on mobile apps' influences in online-offline contexts from a globalised and local digital perspective. She has done research about how Chinese international students in Melbourne perceive their use of multiple social media channels in building local geographical identity. She is also interested in broader research areas related to Asian digital culture.

Haoyang Zhai is a PhD candidate at the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne. Her doctoral project explores the intersection of spirituality and digital media, specifically focusing on Chinese social media platforms. She is also interested in investigating the impact of platform governance and Internet censorship on digital culture.

Haocheng Zhang is a PhD researcher at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. He explores the body, and choreography critical studies and combines them with graphic design and technology, as well as literature from Chinese philosophy. His research interests include interdisciplinary, cross-culture, design, choreography, and Chinese philosophy.

Yichen Zhang is a PhD student in Screen & Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne. Her doctoral project seeks to explore the post-graduation lives of Chinese international students of gender studies upon their return to China. She is particularly interested in the micro-dynamics of everyday feminist politics – the subtle and nuanced forms of change in relations of power (‘moments of change’) and the struggles for gender equality that individuals can carry out in their day-to-day lives.

Before doing her PhD, Yichen obtained a BA in English at Shanghai University and an MA in Gender, Media and Culture at Goldsmiths College, University of London.